Medical nebulizers are devices well known in the art that nebulize, atomize or aerosolize a fluid medication for delivery to a patient. Nebulizers are frequently used for the delivery of medication to patients suffering from respiratory problems such as, for example, asthma. In general, a nebulizer operates by passing a compressed gas over or near a fluid reservoir containing liquid medication. Liquid medication is drawn or aerosolized into the compressed gas by operation of the Venturi Effect. Nebulizer systems generally employ an air compressor coupled to a nebulizer mask or mouthpiece by tubing configured to transport a compressed gas generated by a nebulizer air compressor to the nebulizer mask or mouthpiece.
Nebulizers and inhalation therapy or medication via nebulizer are often prescribed by physicians for adults and children suffering from respiratory disorders. A patient receiving such therapy is required to breathe with a nebulizer mask or mouthpiece attached for at least several minutes so that aerosolized fluid medication can be administered within the patient's lungs. Patients may be required to breathe through a nebulizer mask in the range of over ten minutes depending on the required dosage and concentration of medication. Children receiving inhalation therapy or medication via nebulizer typically breathe through a nebulizer mask or mouthpiece for a longer period of time to allow for medication contained in a nebulizer fluid reservoir to be fully administered to the child's lungs.
Regular and emergency nebulizer treatments are frequently prescribed to children with respiratory disorders as an alternative to inhaler treatments or for situations when inhaler treatments are less effective. Often, pediatric patients are prescribed nebulizer treatments in lieu of inhaler treatments because of the difficulty in instructing a child on the proper way to accept medication via an inhaler, as an inhaler requires some bare level of knowledge about how to receive the treatment, which is known in the art. Further, while a child may be required to breathe through a nebulizer mask attached to a nebulizer compressor for a period of time, children (because of short attention spans) often find it difficult, distasteful or boring to complete an entire nebulizer treatment. Parents of pediatric patients similarly often find it difficult to get the child to calmly remain tethered to a nebulizer system by a nebulizer mask and tubing coupled to a nebulizer compressor for a complete administering of prescribed or required levels of medication.
The difficulty of safely getting pediatric patients to comfortably remain tethered to a nebulizer system can result in insufficient medication administering via the nebulizer, which can compromise the effectiveness of such a treatment, as parents may often allow a child to abbreviate a treatment if the child expresses discomfort and a desire to remove cease a nebulizer treatment. Hence, a heretofore unaddressed need exists to increase the comfort-level or placate the short attention span of a child undergoing a nebulizer treatment.